Noah
by Lady Amarra
Summary: Parrish gets overenthusiastic with the flora of a planet, but that’s just the start of the whole problem. Team!Lorne fic for Spookme Challenge prompt A locked or hidden room REPOST!
1. Chapter 1 betaed

_**Author**: Amarra_

_**Timeline**: Between "Sateda" and "Progeny" _

_**Spoile**r: Minor ones for Rodney's ass in Sateda, and the nameless military guy out of the same episode. _

_**Rating**: M (for blood) _

_**Characters**: Major Lorne, Dr. Parrish, Dr. Zelenka, Lt. Cadman, Dr. Mckay, Col. Sheppard, Ronon, Teyla, Dr. Weir, Chuck the-gate-tech and others..._

_**Challenge**: Spookme Challenge Prompt: A locked or hidden room_

_**Warning**: bloodshed and minor Character deaths_

_**Summary**: Parrish gets overenthusiastic with the flora of a planet, but that's just the start of the whole problem._

**Notes**: now in the process of being betaed, will be updated with beated Chapters. Thanks to Fledge for the beta!

**Noah**

_**Chapter one**_

* * *

The gate stands in the centre of a small foggy clearing, tightly surrounded by Pegasus beeches, oaks and partly overgrown stone pillars. The whole scene has something of an old British horror movie about it, absurdly like Alfred Hitchcock just not in black and white. The setting makes it impossible to take a ship through the gate, at least not without crashing it into the woods or the stone pillars, so they come through by foot and regret the fact the instant they walk out of the event horizon and into the mother of all rainy afternoons.

So much for accurate weather forecasts by doubtfully skilled Canadian gate technicians, Lorne thinks, and pulls his collar higher around his neck.

"Stay close together..."

His team follows the command wordlessly as the gate dies and leaves them in the wet weather all on their own.

The pathway to the village they have come for lies behind the gate and crawls along soft hills framed by more of the old, thick trees and stones. At one point it must have been an impressive street of gigantic dimensions, broad and well paved; today, it looks like any of the dead civilisations they have come across before now.

Lathia, their Athosian team mate isn't bothered by the ruins and leads them along the path for about ten minutes. It starts raining again by the time they reach a couple of steps that are nearly overgrown with vines and bushes. It's slippery - and the rain really doesn't help as they climb up - but in the end they reach the top only to find more ruins and a lot of mud.

"This is unexpected..." Lathia blinks and looks around, frowning.

There is just vegetation at the end of the steps where she expected the village to be, or rather, debris and empty ruins of the village overgrown with vegetation in all forms and colours. She had been there with her father once, long years ago, and knows how the village had looked, knows from others that it had been alive and well not more than a year ago; but everything is gone now, gone like so many other people who had been her friends.

Lorne watches how she crouches down for a moment, laying her hand flat on the mud before her, and can relate to the pain she must feel. She had talked about the visit with her father enthusiastically in the briefing, had warned them about the stone pillars and that no ships could fly through the gate - which had given the P'thia a comparatively high level of security.

Lorne stops close behind her. "Are you alright?"

"Yes." She answers with a calm which seems unique to Teyla's people and rises again, staring at her muddy hand. "I am well."

Lorne watches her for a moment more as the others of his team close up to the two.

"I would say somebody was here before us," Baker states somewhere behind Lorne, barely audible over the pitter-patter sound of the rain.

Cadman adds, "I would say long before us..."

Lorne changes the hand with which he holds his gun and takes the scanner from his pocket – you never knew, after all, if something was as empty and dead as it seemed on first sight – but there is nothing unusual.

"Do you see something on the scanner, Sir?" Cadman stands to his right now and peers over at the tiny display. The blue screen remains blue, nothing but the dots symbolising his team and the background buzz of normal nature as far as he can see.

"No..." But something doesn't feel right about that fact. "Nothing but us."

"We traded regularly with the P'thia. Our people were good friends before we left Athos," Lathia explains and walks ahead with slow, careful steps before turning back to her team. "I want to find out who did this."

Lorne understands that request, he wants to know it too. It doesn't look much like the Wraith after all; they usually leave empty ghost villages or bombed out ruins, but so much damage in such a short time is unusual even for them – especially with all the greenery already overgrowing it.

"Fine," he puts the scanner back into his pocket, "we take a look." He brings up his gun and gestures for them to move out. "But we stay together. Baker, you are with Parrish."

Parrish grumbles but keeps quiet; he's tired of being assigned a babysitter, just because he gets a bit too enthusiastic over the plant life sometimes. He doesn't like it but he can understand - if there are Wraith here, he really has no desire to become a snack for them.

They enter what's left of the village centre and stumble over more debris and foliage. Everything seems to be overgrown with vines and bushes, looking as though it has been left for centuries at least, which totally fails to match the fact that the Athosians had been trading with these people until not more than a year ago.

"Oh! Oh this is disgusting," Cadman whines a couple of meters in, and the others turn to her.

She stands ankle deep in a pile of bones and vines, squishy, soft bones that look like white foam and burble from the rain and her weight pressing down on them.

Now that they know what to look for below the greenery and the debris, it becomes clear that Cadman isn't the only one standing more or less close to human remains. They are covered by the vines and buried under mud and debris, but they are there.

"What makes bones look like that?" Parson, the second marine, nudges a pile of sun bleached bones he's uncovered tentatively with his boot, and gets bubbles of water in return – they seem soaked with water like a sponge.

"Acid," Parrish supplies.

"Acid?" Lorne repeats, and blinks.

"Yes, acid can disassociate the minerals in the bones; after a while or with the right concentration, eventually it can even dissolve the bones," Parrish adds.

Well, so much for the Wraith, Lorne thinks. He looks around and finds what might have been a shed or something similar once. He peers over the side and finds it connected to a corral of wooden railings which still stand. These must have held their almost-cows inside or some of the long pelted horses he has seen on other worlds; at least the size of the bones that are visible would fit.

Lorne peers over the fence on the other side and does a fast head count of the skeletons. Ten of the animals at least, all huddled together in a corner close by the shed. They had not even had time to panic or break out, he thinks to himself frowning, and steps back. Everything is full of bones; everywhere soft, squishy bones.

"What could have killed them?" Corporal Parson asks and pulls the collar of his uniform tighter around his neck. "The rain perhaps? I mean acid rain?"

"Don't be an idiot..." Cadman uncovers another pile of bones with her boot, biting her lip as she discovers it to be what might have been a mother and her child, still wrapped around each other in whatever struggle against death they have undergone.

"Perhaps an animal?" Parson goes on. "It swallowed the parts, digested the flesh and spit out the bones again..."

"I really don't think so," Cadman says and walks in a wide curve around the lump in the greenery.

The settlement around them looks like the standard kind of map from one of the many war games going around back at base, except for the bone fragments all over the place. Everything is smashed and spread out like a macabre puzzle, with ribs here and skulls there among shattered glass, broken wood, bombed stone walls and burnt thatched roofs, just collapsed as though after an earthquake or some similar violence. Most bodies they find are covered with vegetation, growing around bones and through skulls, sometimes even in their squishy surfaces.

"Besides, how do you explain their consistency? Huh?" Cadman glares over her shoulder at the man who walks behind her.

The corporal glares back. "Well, animals do have acid in their stomachs..."

Which doesn't make sense, because the concentration of acid needed for such a feat would be unusual in an animal, and it wouldn't fit with the bones of the mother still together with her child. Plus, animals big enough to do this would probably have registered on the scanner.

Lorne looks around and counts through his team members, spread over the village court. He frowns at Cadman, who looks more than a little irked by the bones, and finally checks on Lathia with a worried look.

Parrish, who collects samples of anything green, really is the only one thrilled by the setting, smiling and babbling enthusiastically. Corporal Baker ignores him and turns his back, watching the rest of his team and the apparent battlefield.

"The bones could have been here for years..." Lorne sidesteps a ribcage that bends inwards in an odd shape and walks on to the next body. Sometimes there are strips of cloth and metal bits and pieces that are probably the remains of their clothes, and those pieces still look comparatively new. Most things that lie around lack the usual patina of having been out in the open for very long and that just doesn't match up.

"...but the things lying around seem new enough." He raises his head and looks around. "That makes no sense at all..."

"Some odd kind of mummification?" Cadman suggests with a shrug.

"Doubtful, there's no flesh left to mummify..." Lorne shakes his head and goes down on his knees, checking over a nearly complete body with his knife. Something has devoured the flesh and sucked out the bones; it doesn't look like the usual Wraith attack at all, and when he thinks about it, it looks like nothing he's ever seen.

"We did not trade with these people in over a year, so I cannot say for sure." Lathia exits a still halfway-standing house not far from where Lorne kneels, carrying a bowl with dark violet fruits in her hands. "But this must have happened only a short while ago..."

"How can you tell?" Baker asks and walks over.

"This is a Pahti-fruit..." She takes one of the fruits from the bowl and holds it up for inspection. "It would be insect-ridden by now or gone entirely had these bodies lain for as long as seems required for such a state of decay, but the fruit seems to have been harvested not more than a few days ago."

"So either somebody is still hiding out here or..." Baker trails off and raises his gun. Cadman and Parson do the same, inspecting the surroundings as though something might jump them at any moment.

Lorne gets up and takes a tighter hold on his P-90. "...Or something destroyed this village and only left the sucked-out bones."

"Do you think it was the Wraith, Lathia?" Cadman asks.

Lathia ponders it for a moment but shakes her head. She sets the bowl aside and joins Lorne by the skeletons.

"No, this is most uncommon for a Wraith attack, these people were not fed upon..."

"More like eaten alive," Parson mutters and swirls a hand pretty Rodney like. "Just... differently." He seems to be generally uncomfortable with standing in the middle of a graveyard.

Lorne feels uneasy as well.

"No marks of teeth or knives on the bones, but I can hardly tell in the state they're in." He grimaces. "I am not at all keen on finding out what or who exactly it was." Lorne turns away from the body he has inspected and studies his team. "Let's go home."

They move back the way they came, except for Parrish, who lingers as usual at the other end of the expanse of ruins. He's bowed down and picking flowers that grow in the mud, or so it looks and Lorne closes his eyes for a moment to stifle the urge to get the man a leash and a collar next time they go off-world.

"Parrish, we're moving out!" He calls over to him but as so often the scientist doesn't react to the order. "Dr. Parrish, we are leaving..." Lorne sing-songs into the radio, just in case the man can't hear the calls of his leader over the short distance; which, realistically, is impossible. His patience grows thin, with whatever ate – or killed - those people possibly still around, and it only proves some of his own theories about scientists – and botanists in particular; that they couldn't see something dangerous unless it bit them in the ass.

Parrish stands up, at least, but walks in the wrong direction, over to where the bushes grow thicker and lead into an expanse of forest.

"Parrish, we are leaving now..."

Parrish completely ignores Cadman's additional order - something that must be imprinted in every scientist's DNA - and keeps studying the ground and bushes around him. Then he jumps up, almost comically and yells, "Oh my God!"

A second later he's gone.

------------------------------------------------------  
TBC


	2. Chapter 2 betaed

_**  
**_

**Chapter two**

Lorne does not even have time to yell at his scientist again before the energetic botanist is swallowed by the forest before him and vanishes out of sight, with a howl into the radio which doesn't sound entirely voluntary, let alone happy.

Lathia is the first to move, Cadman, Baker and Parson on her heels. Lorne follows last.

The forest is full of boulders, vines, bushes and fallen trees, sprawling down a surprisingly steep hill as soon as they pass the first bushes. Parrish must have slipped and slithered down the hill ahead of them, so they dash wildly after him. The sudden change in flora and downhill gradient takes Baker by surprise, so he slips on one of the boulders with a not very manly cry, flails his arms to regain his balance, but loses the battle - and his gun.

He ends up gliding down face first over a couple of rocks into a nest of the red and green vines, which seems so deep that he vanishes completely in the greenery.

Parson dives after him and just barely avoids falling over trunks and vines on the way. Their slim scientist, however, stays ahead of them all and avoids any possible stones or sticks in the path of his slide. He's still yelling words nobody understands, and Baker and Parson curse and growl in a different corner of the woods so that Lorne is tempted to check on his men for a moment before following the scientist. He makes a sign to Cadman to move on ahead of him.

The two marines, however, appear out of the profusion of green and red just long enough to give their CO the signal to move on and save their scientist, so he changes direction again and follows Cadman downhill.

Cadman jumps and climbs over the stones successfully, but then slips, colliding with a tree; which leads to Lorne bumping into her as he nearly slips on exactly the same spot she did. Both growl from the impact but move on anyway; their scientist is probably already at the bottom of the hill, sounding either in awful panic or in highest ecstasy - Lorne hopes it is the first or Parrish will get a long and very colourful screaming fit worthy of a certain Canadian Genius.

Lorne emerges from the dense forest into a clearing at the base of the hill, still driven onward by his half stumbling run down, and almost crashes into Lathia who seems to be patiently waiting for their arrival. The place is full of countless marine and turquoise blue flowers, mud and puddles of water; plus, a very joyful Parrish bouncing around in the middle of the wet field like a thirty nine year old, loudly squealing little boy who is picking flowers for his – by now pretty grumpy - mommy.

The rain has stopped and Lorne shakes himself like a wet dog before he stomps over to his scientist with heavy steps. The clearing is one single puddle with the flowers poking out like water lilies and he's not happy to have the water seeping over the rim of his boots with every single step.

Cadman is the next to be spat out of the greenery and she growls as she slips and ends up face first in the mud. She's glaring in a way she clearly must have adopted from Rodney as she stands again, holding her shoulder, covered all over with mud, with vines and twigs sticking out of her hair at all angles.

It almost looks funny, if it weren't for the downright murderous glare she has on her dirty face.

"Don't tell me you took this stunt downhill because of a bunch of flowers!" she growls, stumbling to a halt before the pacing scientist. "Tell me you didn't..."

She seethes with words Lorne ignores for the sake of his sanity and follows Parrish back and forth among the flowers like a prowling tigress ready to pounce her prey. Given the time of the month all bets on Parrish's survival are off, Lorne thinks, and he rolls his shoulders before stepping into action between his team mates.

"What the hell have I told you about just running off?" he snaps, stomping along the field in Parrish's wake.

He's sure Sheppard has his scientist trained not to run off like that and he feels a bit jealous, before he concentrates again on yelling at his own.

"David!" He waves his hand at the scientist. "Do you remember rule three? The 'not just running off like that when you see a pretty flower' rule?" He wants to point at the flowers, at Parrish, at anyone around and complain that his shoulder hurts and that his nose tickles for some strange reason; but Parrish just ignores him (as so often) to pick another flower, mumbling friendly words at it as he stuffs it in a box.

At least it isn't raining anymore.

This is absolutely rule three of their nine Team Rules, established after months of working together and getting into all sorts of trouble. Half of them are about the quirks and addictions of several members, like 'don't run because of pretty flowers', 'share the chocolate on missions' (Cadman's) or 'beware of alien princesses/princes who want to play nice' (and he is sure the last rule is not the only one they have in common with Sheppard's team).

The Rules are meant to keep them all alive, not that they really hold to them so often, but it's nice to know they're there.

Baker is hobbling by the time the other marines arrive too, leaning on Parson's shoulder as they emerge from the woods. Parson, a real mountain of a man, leans his friend against one of the trees and stomps right up to Parrish as soon as he sees that there is an obvious lack of bloodshed or destruction waiting for them. Marines like him somehow tend to take the lack of action personally.

"You promised to not just run off anymore," he growls, red with anger – where his face is still visible under all the dirt - and nearly spitting.

Parrish picks flowers.

"Corporal Baker..." Lorne grumbles and waves the man back to help his team mate. Parson snarls, wipes the mud from his face and keeps glaring at the botanist, but he moves back to his friend. It's going to be a long and interesting post-mission briefing, Lorne is sure, and then he sneezes.

"Be pleased..."

"Thank you, Lathia," he stammers back.

Lorne is confused for several seconds; he has no allergies he knows of, so the sneezing comes to him as a surprise. He rubs his nose on his uniform sleeve without any evident cleansing effect and decides to be disgusted later; he has to get his team back to base and can yell at his scientist then.

"Parrish..." Lorne breathes in. This won't be pretty and Cadman senses the screaming coming so she turns and goes off to help Parson.

Parrish just decides to ignore the anger and comes up to his leader with an innocent expression.

"Major, look at this!" Parrish downright squeals and Lorne is taken aback enough by that sound to stop moving and simply stare. "Isn't this the most beautiful Hepatica you've ever seen?"

David twirls a single blue flower in his fingers directly in front of Lorne's face – while Lorne stands arrested with his mouth open – grinning with adoration for the beauty of nature and all that crap. Typically Parrish, and familiar right from the beginning of their team.

"Yeah, great..." Ranting would have no use right now, Lorne understands, really none. Not as long as Parrish is squealing and bouncing. Lorne wants to rub his face, in irritation and because the mud itches. He can't help picturing Parrish as a puppy, happily wagging its tail. Ranting now would be like kicking the puppy, and who'd want to do that?

"Look at this Lathia, each flower is more beautiful than the last..." Parrish turns to her with yet another squeal.

The dark haired Athosian woman observes the flower in Parrish's hand patiently and smiles a serene, patented Teyla-smile as the man continues to pick his flowers. Lorne rubs his tickling nose and rolls his shoulders again. His left one will be pretty sore later, in fact damn, it is already.

"We do call these flowers 'Bahesem' but the closest name in common tongue would be moon flower," she says.

Lathia is as patient as ever, the standard Athosian reaction to the eccentricities of earth scientists, but has this underlying vibe of 'strange earthlings' radiating off her. Lorne can't do much but smile at her in a helpless way – perhaps a bit apologetic too – and feels painfully like an alien himself.

"Moon flower. Yes, that's indeed a beautiful name," Parrish continues as he searches for a few more containers to bag the flowers for later observation. "We call them _Hepatica nobilis,_ or common liverwort."

Lathia tilts her head and nods and Parish stuffs the next flower away, patting the bag of containers lovingly. "And what a wonderful example she is."

"They are indeed..." Lathia gently helps Parrish to put on his backpack and starts to push him forward.

She has a lot of Teyla about her; the clear features, the dark eyes and the patience of a saint when dealing with scientists. "...but you should not have left the team in such a rush because of these, Dr. Parrish."

As well as the broad collection of silent ways to master them, because Parrish nods and suddenly takes in that the rest of his team is there too.

"Oh," he says.

Lorne ignores him and just signals the team to move with a simple swirl of his hand, leaving the woman to deal with the scientist. "Cadman you lead, find a way up... I'll take the six."

Cadman gives a last disapproving glare and moves, Baker and Parson following slowly behind her along a line of boulders and stones along the margin of the blue field. It's drier here and the vines and bushes haven't overgrown it completely yet, so it's easy to find a path upwards.

"Oh... Oh..." Parrish blinks as he watches the others move, as if noticing only now that the rest of his team is moving away from him.

It's just that he always loses it a bit when he sees botanical beauty in all the perfect glory only nature can create. It has been like this since his childhood, when he admired his desert home bloom after a hot summer rain.

He feels so sorry all of a sudden, so very sorry and he turns around, hurrying back to Lorne under the patient and approving eyes of their Athosian friend.

He catches up to Lorne with an awkward smile, mumbling apologies.

"Sorry," Lorne mutters with a sigh and grasps his P-90 harder, raises his head and looks up the hill to where the grey sky is coming through. He hadn't seen the field from up there but Parrish probably had and sprinted off – before slipping.

"Fine. Look, Parrish..." he starts but Lorne's second violent sneeze stops his words and echoes across the clearing. Another sneeze follows before Lathia can even open her mouth to wish him blessings and he just snaps his mouth shut and decides to yell at Parrish later, and move before he sneezes his brains out over the crappy little flowers.

"Be pleased..."

He nods his thanks to Lathia who smiles in return and gestures for Parrish to move. "We'll talk about this later. Just let us get the hell out of here..."

Lorne sneezes again, once, twice and a third time in a row before they finally cross the field to where the others are searching for a path uphill.

Sometimes he wonders - especially during such moments - why he had raised his hand as General O'Neill had searched for people to join the mission. On the other hand, he has a good team and they actually work pretty well together when it comes down to it. The strange scientist is just part of the inventory of every gate-team. He can't really complain; today has just been a shitty day and a shitty mission, will probably turn out to be a shitty briefing later on, too.

His team is a good team.

But sometimes, yeah, sometimes, God help him, he'd rather have McKay on his team.

He shudders and steps onto a rock that's lying there in the blue field. Just so he won't sink any further into the muddy flowers, which turns out to be the wrong move, because the rock gives out under him a moment later and he falls into a dark pit.

The impact is hard and knocks the air out of him for a second. Then water comes down from above and nearly drowns him with mud and flowers.

Yeah, a shitty mission, absolutely.

TBC


	3. Chapter 3 betaed

_**Chapter three**_

Cadman turns her head just in time to see her leader vanish from the surface and runs back to the end of their small group, coming to a halt a meter or two away from the hole where her CO was just a moment ago.

"SIR!" She cries. "SIR!!"

Lathia pushes Parrish behind her and away from the hole and nods to Cadman, slowly edging her way forward to the rim of the hole to look down while the other woman holds her by her belt. The water from the field around them runs over the edge and she can barely see anything for a moment, then the view clears.

"Major Lorne, can you hear us?!" she calls, but at first there is no answer.

Lorne is on his back, spitting out the mud which has ended up in his mouth and nose. It hurts too damn much to move and cough. He frowns at the blinding light above him as he comes to thanks to the pain, registering female voices above him.

They move in and out of range too fast for his brain, eyes and ears to catch up, partly due to the mud, partly because of the impact, but also because of the pain.

There is so much pain that he just groans and tries to black out again for a moment. Then he remembers what happened and groans with more feeling. Shitty mission - in bold, capital letters.

"Ow…"

"Major Lorne do you hear us?!" Lathia repeats and he tries to look up, but falling water and a thick coating of mud on his face make it nearly impossible to see anything beyond the blinding light from above.

Then he sneezes and his body explodes in pain again.

"Be pleased…" Lathia calls down and Lorne smiles although he hurts.

"Thanks…" he calls back as the pain passes, and arches his back. It hurts but everything seems to work still, though his shoulder is a lot worse now.

"I'm still alive…" His leg must have gotten the worst of the impact, it certainly feels that way, and his head, well, he must have banged it as he fell on his face. "But my leg is probably broken," he adds.

"We're getting you out of there, Sir!!" Cadman's call echoes down to him, together with a wave of blue flower petals, water and mud.

The rim of the hole isn't too stable and they have no more than the usual equipment with them. No extra rope or beams to rig up a pulley to get him up; that is clear almost at once. They could try to use one of the vines to pull him up, or perhaps climb down and get him out – at least that is what Lathia suggests a moment later - but Lorne hears them and isn't happy at all.

"NO, Cadman," Lorne calls out. "Get back to the gate and get some help!"

"Okay Sir!"

It probably wouldn't be the wisest decision to leave their CO alone on an alien planet where something ate people and spat only the squishy bones out again, so Cadman does what Lorne says, just adjusts it a bit to the current situation.

"Parson, you and Lathia stay here. Keep an eye on the Major and his status. I am going to take Baker and Parrish back and get back-up." She gestures with her hand in a way that she might have adopted from Rodney, and receives nods of acknowledgement in return.

Parson still has Baker at his side but switches with Cadman as she commands him, glares at Parrish and takes his spot beside Lathia at the rim of the hole. Nobody else seems to look at Parrish, who just stands there and blinks down at the mess he has caused, clutching his sample case to him for all it's worth.

The only one not ignoring him is Lathia, who gives him a patented smile to get him moving even before Cadman can call out.

"We will take care of him, Dr. Parrish. Go…"

He nods slowly and climbs up the hill after the others, to go to the gate and get help.

o

Dr. Weir stands at her usual spot on the balcony as the gate activates, worry pouring off her in measurable waves. Lorne's team is too early and that seems somehow worse to her than any potential reason for delay. It means they have been confronted with a situation that can't be solved on the other world. Usually Wraith, Genii, bad trading agreements, former trading partners turned traitor, bounty hunters or whatever else is out to get them this week.

And in moments like this she knows, just knows that her worry is justified, with all of them out there. She brings her hands together and raises her head, waiting and hoping that it won't be another team that left with more people than it returns with, but seemingly no god is listening to her tonight.

Sheppard comes from the direction of a corridor below her as she turns and walks down the stairs. He looks no less worried than her. He reaches the stairs to the gate level in time with Cadman's appearance through the gate, with Baker leaning on her shoulder and Parrish trailing after her.

Sheppard waits but nobody comes after Parrish. His eyes snap to the lieutenant the moment the gate closes down. "Lt. Cadman, where is the rest of your team?"

Beckett and his usual med-team arrive next, and the Scot checks over his girlfriend with his eyes, counting fingers and limbs within a second just to make sure, then he takes in the lack of team members and blinks. "What happened?"

"Just my question," Sheppard quips.

"There was an accident, Sir…"

"Accident?"

"You weren't attacked by the villagers, were you? I thought Teyla said they were peaceful," Weir asks, her hands still clasped in front of her hips. This isn't good. Not another incident like that…

"It wasn't the villagers, they are dead," Cadman starts. "We don't know how they were killed or by whom - or what. We followed Dr Parrish down a hill and as we tried to climb up again to the gate, Major Lorne fell into a hole, perhaps a cave or tunnel; I couldn't tell."

She's looking at Parrish now, and there are enough accusations in her eyes for Weir to follow her glare and frown.

"He ordered us to get back up to fetch help; Lathia and Parson are still with him," she continues and Weir still looks searchingly at the scientist. Parrish bites his lip and looks away.

"Request permission to mount a rescue team…"

"Go Colonel," Elizabeth says and Sheppard is already moving, Cadman on his heels; she can hear her suggesting additional forces and equipment as they leave earshot.

"I should go with them as well…" Beckett requests just a moment later and she just nods and lets him go.

The paramedics move Baker onto a stretcher and wheel him out, and Parrish just keeps clutching his sample case and backpack tighter. He watches Baker and the others leave then notices Elizabeth's questioning look and turns his face away from her.

He clearly doesn't want to talk about what happened and Weir is tempted to push; there have been previous incidents in which he put his team in danger with his head-over-heels approach to something he saw.

"Dr. Parrish?"

"I would like to take the samples back to my laboratory," he almost whispers. "I don't think I will be needed back on the planet…"

Weir stares for a moment longer then nods. He can talk later when all this is over. "Alright, but don't forget your post-mission check-up."

"I won't," he whispers before hurrying down the steps and away to the nearest transport unit.

o


	4. Chapter 4 betaed

_**Chapter four**_

Taking a jumper would have been better, to transport the equipment – and Lorne on the way back - but the forest around the gate is too close to allow clear exit or entry of a ship. Instead they bring SGA-4 along, complete with Dr. Suni, a Japanese geo-engineer who is familiar with mines, soil mechanics and foundation design, and the equipment is distributed among the additional military. (It's a good thing to have a scientist for just about every possible situation.)

At least the rain has stopped and the sun is out, clearing away the wetness with hot, bright beams.

It hasn't been more than half an hour since Cadman left for help and Lorne is still in his hole. He stares at the blue-grey sky above him; the waterfalls of mud and flowers have died down to thin drops and he can almost breathe again without sneezing his lungs out.

Lathia and Parson look over the rim from time to time and he waves back tiredly. He can't really move into a sitting position, because of his leg, and his head hurts a lot so he votes for just staying there on the ground, watching the flowers, counting them perhaps.

"Here's SGA-1, calling SGA-2, do you copy?"

Sheppard's voice crackles from a few meters or so to Lorne's right. He probably lost the radio due to the impact, he thinks, and tries to fix his eyes on the small device.

"I repeat, here's SGA-1, calling SGA-2, do you copy?"

"We are here Colonel Sheppard," Lathia answers before Lorne can even see clearly where the device is crackling from. "We are still with Major Lorne."

"How is he? Cadman said he fell down a hole," is Sheppard's next question.

"Is he conscious?" Dr. Beckett adds and Lorne rolls his eyes to himself. Seems like a complete entourage has come to the rescue and all because of some nasty little flowers that make him sneeze. It's downright comical.

"It seems so. He answered our calls," Lathia answers and Lorne decides to try his best and fish for his radio, rolling over his arm and onto his belly to reach for the radio without compromising his head or his legs. It doesn't really work.

"Aye, that's good. Talk to him, it's important to keep him awake in case he has banged his head…"

"How far is it Lieutenant?" Lorne can hear Sheppard ask; he doesn't catch Cadman's answer completely, but he knows how far it is and doesn't really need to hear it. "We'll be at your position in a few minutes, keep him awake."

He rests his head on the cool wet ground and jams the radio against his ear. There isn't enough water dripping from above to make puddles down in his hole – at least no more than he is already lying in. "I am awake, Sir. And it's just a little headache and a broken leg Doc, nothing dramatic…"

He turns his head to the other side to have more space to talk and finds a dark wall not far away, surprisingly familiar in design and colour. He wonders how it got there for a moment then shrugs it off like the dust and the mud, and concentrates on the fact that he can't keep on lying here on his belly like a fish on dry land. He decides that it couldn't hurt more to roll over again and try to sit up, perhaps even against the nice, familiar wall he has just discovered.

The rescue team will probably need space to come down and get him and he doesn't want to end up squashed under Ronon or Teyla or someone, although being under Teyla would probably have a good side too. His leg hurts like hell from the movement, worse even than before and he notices the absolutely unhealthy angle it has to the rest of his body. God damn he thinks, that's just what he needs.

"I rephrase that, nothing dramatic and perhaps a _multiply_ broken leg…" He's slightly out of breath and has no clue how long he might have taken to rearrange his body, let alone whether the others have said anything in the meantime.

Beckett seemingly is more aware, and more worried too. "Stay awake and we'll see, son," the doctor answers and he ignores McKay's obvious babbling in the background in favour of his headache, which is growing just from sitting almost upright.

In fact it becomes unbearable within seconds and he makes himself fall over to the side again, easing into an almost foetal position - so much for his struggle to sit up.

**o **

Sheppard's team and the rescue detail move along the worn out path with a bit more caution than Lorne's team before, breaking a sweat under the glaring sun that by now is starting to turn the mud into sticky puddles. The marines, who carry the equipment, growl about the ground more than once, sinking in with their heavy boots and unable to pull out without help.

They change to walk over the broad fields of foliage now, trampling down the vines in their path to the stairs and up to the village. Sheppard is already up there and observes the village remains while the others spread around him on the path Lorne uncovered earlier.

Beckett kneels down by one of the skeletons, the one Cadman had first uncovered, and repeats her reaction to it pretty accurately. The bones are bent into each other but it's still clearly the remains of a mother holding her child, all crushed and sucked out – and not in the Wraith way.

"Oh, my…" Carson has spent his share of time at medical school with the pathology department but has never seen this particular state of decay. He has even carried out experiments with dissolving flesh away from the bones to uncover markings on them, but this looks truly strange.

The marines see the bones and the bubbling coming from within them, and take the sticky mud that wants to eat their boots in preference.

"Oh!" Rodney makes the tactical change to the muddy ground as well. "That's disgusting."

"Rodney…" Sheppard looks around and shares an uneasy look with Ronon. The tall man has seen many worlds but he has never seen recent bones so clean of flesh before, let alone bubbling like some kind of biochemical experiment.

Rodney makes his way over to Sheppard, giving every single pile of bones a wide berth. "What the hell happened here?"

Beckett stands up again, shaking his head at the spectacle. "I have nae clue, Rodney."

"How much further is it Cadman?" Sheppard asks, turning his head to the woman who stands not far away.

"A hundred meters at max…" She is purposefully looking into the woods ahead and not around the village; she has had her share of dead children for today. "Right behind those trees there, but it goes downhill very steeply…"

"Major Peterson, take one man back to the gate and keep an eye open, the other half of your team stays to secure this area." Peterson and his three team mates nod and give the loads they are carrying over to Teyla, Suni and Beckett.

"Ronon, you're with them." Sheppard turns and gestures at Ronon. "I don't want to run into whatever did this. Rodney, you keep an eye on the scanner."

"There's nothing, just the usual background buzzing of the wildlife," McKay says and his head snaps up as he steps closer to Teyla out of instinct – or routine. "You don't think animals did this, do you?"

"Hard to tell, Rodney. As I said, I have no idea what could have caused this," Carson says but he can't hide a smile at Rodney's wide eyed fear. "Although, you couldn't see bite marks in this state even if there were any…"

Rodney glares but doesn't move out from behind Teyla.


	5. Chapter 5 betaed

_**Chapter five**_

"SGA-2, we are almost at your position…"

"Understood Colonel, I'll meet you halfway to show you where we are," Corporal Parson replies over the open frequency and Lorne looks up to see where Lathia has gone to, but the dark haired woman is still there, looking over the rim to find him as well.

"Major Lorne?" she asks and a cloud of petals and water showers over Lorne. He has craned his neck upwards to see through the hole and gets the full load over his face and up his nose. The sneeze is spectacular, the howl of pain even more so.

"Be pleased…" she says and Lorne waves his hand, sneezing again and wincing from the pain in his leg.

He sighs. "You mean bless you, but thank you anyway."

The echo and the movement hurts like a hot needle in his skull and his leg tries to tell him of all the possible ways in which it could be broken, with hurting everywhere at the same time. He groans and curls into a tighter ball.

"Yes, of course. Bless you," Lathia corrects, then pauses for a moment.

Lorne wonders if she is still there, looking up again to see her staring at something to her right, concentrating with a frown on her face. She has her gun ready to fire and narrows her eyes, but after a moment she seems to relax again.

"Is everything alright?" he asks and she looks back down at him.

"Yes it is; I just thought I saw movement in the bushes…" And she had, she could have sworn that there was movement below the green vines across the clearing; at least the branches had twitched accordingly.

"It must have been the wind," she concludes and Lorne wonders whether there is any wind at all up above, because the trees he can see when he really tries to lean forward don't move at all.

"Where is Parson?" he asks as he remembers that Lathia is not meant to be alone up there.

"Corporal Parson has left to lead Colonel Sheppard's team here; they will arrive soon," she says and draws back from the rim. She's worried, Lorne can sense it, and he closes his eyes for a while. He is just too tired and wet to keep them open, movement in the bushes or not.

o

Parrish has changed into his usual uniform, taking a seat at his office desk with a deep sigh on his lips. It's already late evening compared to the early midday on the Planet and most members of his department have already gone to eat or take a late coffee break.

He is alone with his sample case and that's good for the moment.

He doesn't want to go to his check-up in the infirmary yet, and in fact, just wants to hide for a few hours, but knows he can't do that either. Sooner or later he has to face the infirmary, and even worse, Weir. He doesn't look forward to either one, because he should be the one sitting in the hole not Lorne, and he should be the one hurting, not his team mates. He has caused the trouble after all.

He closes his eyes and sighs deeply. Sometimes he wishes for a more practical field of expertise than botany – well, a more useful one against the Wraith at least. It's stupid to think such things, and he knows that too; he's a botanist and botany has been his destiny ever since he woke back home to a totally changed world.

He can see the sandy hick town he grew up in when he closes his eyes, and how it had come to bloom and green for a couple of days after the rainstorms in fall. That was what caused his love and his enthusiasm, is to blame for the fact that he forgets everything else in the face of nature's beauty, but it is also something he wouldn't want to change, even if he could.

All the plant containers are lined up before him and he studies each petal and flower as he opens his eyes again, even the vines he ripped out on the other world. Was it really worth it?

It probably wasn't.

He sighs again and opens one of the containers, gets up and walks over to the small cultivation area they have set up in the laboratory. It is basically the equivalent of a small Ancient greenhouse, and looks more like an oval, three meter wide showcase in the middle of his lab than a real greenhouse, but it is enough for the plants.

The glass door opens and he steps inside, samples of the vegetation which was overgrowing the village debris in his hands. The ground in the showcase is on the same level as the floor of the laboratory and made of a sort of gelatine that nurses most samples they have for up to forty hours before they start to die off. It's organic, some sort of living planting ground that can regenerate itself – nobody has figured out how yet exactly. It's extremely practical, though.

"Well, I hope you are at least a medicine against cancer," he whispers to the last sample before planting them all and activating the scanners.

He watches the green light sweep over them, turning circles and going back the same way over and over again and he hopes, hopes so much, that he will have a chance to say 'I'm sorry' to Lorne and the rest of his team.

o

It's quite calm for a few moments, with not much more than static and complaints from McKay, which he gets in stereo from the surface and over his radio. Loud, whiny and exactly why he likes Parrish more, even if he has a fetish for flowers that has brought them a hell of a lot of trouble.

"…I am just saying that I bruise easily and it would have been safer to secure us before we came down here… Hey that hurt! Ow…" Rodney grows louder on the surface now and Lorne dares to look up again; the sky is bright blue now and the water falls in tiny rivulets that sparkle like diamonds in the sunbeams.

It must have turned pretty warm on the surface too because as he catches the first sight of his rescue team they are mainly down to their shirts with vests on top.

"You'll survive," is the gruff return to Rodney, Teyla's to Lorne's surprise.

"He moved slightly to the side," Lathia reports and Teyla replies with something in her usual friendly way that Lorne can't quite understand, then the mud comes raining down again with a flood of water and petals.

"Hey down there, how are you?!" Sheppard calls and his spiky haired head appears above Lorne, sharp in relief against the bright sun. It's blinding him and Lorne looks back down into the darker hole so as not to get himself a worse headache than he already has.

"Still here sir," Lorne replies and doesn't look up this time, the hand of his good arm shielding his nose and mouth so he won't sneeze again. "Not running anywhere."

"Good. Just stay put, we'll rig up a hoist and come down to you," Sheppard replies and Lorne can almost hear the familiar smirk of his CO. Okay, he decides, it's probably a good thing Beckett is up there too, it gets dangerous when he can hear his CO smirking.

Sheppard looks around; he has sent Parson off to help the others guarding the gate, there are enough people around the clearing already. An ocean of blue flowers and mud covers it, there are boulders everywhere in the woods around them but none in the clearing; in fact there is nothing but blue flowers and puddles of water – a little ocean of blue dots.

"Dr. Suni," he turns to the Japanese woman. "It's your turn now."

"Major Lorne? Can you please try and tell me some more about the space around you? Perhaps about the roof, or the walls… can you see the walls?" she asks over the radio and edges closer to the hole, Lorne can see her head just at the rim.

"It's difficult to say…" He tries to look around and sees his gun not far away. "One moment, I'll try to reach my gun and get some light in here." He winces from the pain in his leg but grabs for the gun with the tips of his fingers, pulling it over to him. Sitting back takes his breath and he's dizzy and disorientated for a very long moment before coming to again.

The first thing he hears as the world circles in on him again is a rich Scottish accent that sounds far more familiar than he ever wanted it to be. "Try to take deep breaths…"

"I'm still here, Doc," he huffs and the Scott mumbles something in return which should concern Lorne but it doesn't. "And, I did it…"

"Very well Major, now please look around in the hole and tell me what you see," Suni says, "but be careful, do not move too much," she adds.

"Well…" He points his gun-light around and tries to see where he is, only to be surprised, or rather, not surprised that this is just typical Atlantis luck. He hadn't dreamed the familiar wall structures at all.

"I can't say for sure, but this is rather a room than a hole; in fact it looks a bit like some of the rooms in the lower levels of Atlantis, just with a stone floor… and the ceiling seems to have come down where it was normal rock." It really does look like the dark, wet and fishy levels that nobody really dares to walk through since the storm a couple of years back.

"Did you just say Atlantis?" McKay pops his head over the rim and stares down. "I need to get down there and take a look!"

Lorne smiles at the enthusiasm; scientists are all the same. He can forgive his own.

"Easy McKay, first we get Beckett down and Lorne out, then we can take a look. If the room allows it…" Sheppard pulls his scientist back by his vest.

"You want me to go down there?" Beckett blinks. "Uh…"

"Yes Carson, you will go down there, together with Teyla and Suni…" He claps Beckett soothingly on his shoulder. "So better rig up…"

Carson isn't joyful at the prospect of dangling down there. "And you take one of the scanners with you. I want to see if there are any energy sources left down there!" McKay adds and presses the hand held scanner into the hands of his friend.

Carson does many things for his patients, but sometimes… "Are you sure?"

Sheppard smiles and waves Cadman over to help the good Doctor. "Rig up."

o

Elizabeth isn't amused as she hears that Parrish hasn't appeared for his post mission check-up yet, knows why he probably didn't listen to her order – after all he seems to be the one to blame for all this, though she can't prove that yet. She sends someone to fetch him in the end, bristling about the luck of her people - and her people in general.

Parrish's laboratory however is completely empty as the marine arrives to collect him; the lights are out and those in the isolation tanks flicker mildly. He steps over the threshold and looks around; it's always dangerous to enter labs you aren't familiar with, especially since several experiments around Atlantis tended to go boom right in the face of whoever came too close; but it's peaceful so far and very lonely.

"Dr. Parrish? Are you here? Dr. Weir sent me to bring you to the infirmary," he calls and there is a shrieking of sorts, almost like a scraping against glass or something. "Dr. Parrish? Are you here? You missed your post mission check-up…"

The only thing that indicates anything similar to movement is a tendril of a vine or something that slithers along the glass wall of a planting container in the centre of the room. No sign of Parrish or anyone else, which given the time of day is not that unusual.

The marine stands there for a few moments and watches mesmerised as the ocean of red and green foliage dances inside the giant tank the scientists use to grow their plants in. It looks just shy of bursting out as he knocks softly against the glass.

His mother always told him that animals, fish in particular, hated when people did this, but he did it to his goldfish anyway. The animal never reacted as he wanted it to, had always tried to escape his knocking; the plant however doesn't.

He knocks twice, and the plant knocks back.

He knocks three times and has to grin as the plant answers. "Smart little thing…"

He knocks again and this time the plant knocks back hard enough to break the glass.


	6. Chapter 6 betaed

Note: Warning for R rated scenes and minor OC death.

_**Chapter Six**_

They fashion a rig within a couple of minutes and Suni goes first. She slowly observes the structure around them, finding the same similarities Lorne described before. Old, worn down pillars that once might have served as lights for the room are covered in the sediment of centuries and the roof might have been a purely Ancient construction. Water must have seeped through the construct with time and in the end must have caused the room to fall in.

"This seems to be part of an underground tunnel system," she says as she finds a door opposite Lorne's position, looking a lot like those on Atlantis.

Her feet touch ground and she turns around to Major Lorne, who waves tiredly at her.

"You can come down now, and that better be fast, Major Lorne doesn't look so good," she calls up.

The petite woman stomps over and kneels down beside Lorne. Another wild sneeze makes him cry out before he can correct her; fine, perhaps he really doesn't feel so good.

"Bless you," Lathia calls out from above as Beckett and a stretcher are next to be let down into the hole, dutifully holding Rodney's scanner while going down, and Lorne wants to laugh about it all.

"Okay, look, I really should take a look," Rodney says from above, his head appearing over the rim of the hole again. "I'm getting small energy signals from down there…"

Lorne can hear Sheppard's sigh. "When we have everyone back up here safely, Rodney."

After that comes the warm fuzz of morphine, lovingly delivered by a Scottish doctor who smiles soothingly while the stretcher is readied to strap the Major in.

"I love you Doc…" he slurs and nearly falls asleep to the sound of chuckling Scot.

o

Ronon and the rest of the guards have spread out and stalk in teams of two through the dense greenery around the old road and the gate.

The fog has long since cleared up and the sun beats down on them without mercy. It's so warm that Ronon wishes he had left his leather coat at home, shrugging his shoulders now and then to get the itching feeling of warm leather off his back. The former rain leaves only a faint wet shadow over things and the mud holes have even dried up enough to build up a skin over the moisture still inside.

"We should have weather like this on Atlantis," Armbruster, one of Peterson's marines sighs and raises his face to the sun as they exit the forest. "Perfect for surfing."

Peterson just smiles lightly and walks a few steps more to reach the white road again. For someone who has never properly stood on a board, Armbruster certainly talks a lot about surfing. "You don't even know how to surf."

"I look good on the board," the marine glares. "And I could improve my tan."

The other man laughs loudly and shakes his head. "You could also drown and let yourself be rescued by Lt. Cadman or something…"

There is nothing to see except for an occasional glimpse of Ronon or the other marines patrolling further down the pathway, and the vines which seem to spread their petals for the sun. Interestingly enough it almost looks as though they are breathing in and out with that movement.

"Funny," Armbruster snarls and stops his banter for just long enough to watch the vines uncurl at the edge of the path. "Huh…"

The tips of the plants' tentacles uncurl in slow motion. The petals unfold and shrink back in small spasms which shake the whole field of green and red in an almost obscene way. It's strangely fascinating and somehow scary at the same time, and Armbruster walks closer to one of the larger patches of green and bows down. "This is really cool…"

"Should you get so close?" Peterson worries.

Tiny, orange knots appear like unborn blossoms squeezed out by the cramps the plant seems to be going through, and the flowers actually start groaning. High and keening, and neither of them is sure what to make of it as smelly, yellowish sap starts to bubble out of the first handful of knots. It looks a lot like a scene out of the movies about STDs which always circulate back at the training camps, leaving every soldier more or less scared in their wake.

"This is…disgusting," Armbruster groans with a heavy German accent. "Ugh… furchtbar!" He covers his nose with the back of his hand and turns his face away, moving backwards away from the plants.

Where one of the vines starts others follow, and soon the vines along the entire road are stinking and convulsing from giving birth to the tiny orange knots. The red vines join in the keening and whining of the rest of the plants but at least don't spit out the sap.

Peterson reaches for his radio. This isn't normal anymore, not by any given Pegasus standard, and that's saying a lot.

"Colonel Sheppard…" he wheezes into the radio. The smell starts to grow unbearably intense, like vomit and the sharp smell of old urine combined. "We've got a situation here. The plants around the village seem to be sprouting or something…"

"Sprouting?" Sheppard queries back and the radio crackles.

"They spill yellow sap…" Peterson clarifies and steps back from the moving and quivering greenery before him, stepping on another tendril that shrieks. The knots burst and literally spit their sap at him, hot and burning where it hits his skin. "Fuck…!"

"Peterson?"

He jumps back and wipes his hands on his pants, then the next tendril starts spitting and soon all the knots around him start to burst and the vines grab at him. Armbruster has the same problem, barely jumping away from the moving greenery and directly into an ocean of the red vines.

"Major Peterson? Major do you hear me… what's going on…?!" Sheppard yells into his ear, but Peterson can't really pay attention. Armbruster is swallowed alive by the red tendrils, rustling and moaning as they wrap him up and devour him. He's screaming at the top of his lungs, screaming and begging and yowling for what seems like minutes, then he is quiet.

"Oh fuck…" Peterson curses and fires at the vines crawling up to him, spitting more of the sap at him, but they just crawl on. "Sir, the vines! The vines… God they ate Armbruster!!" His eyes burn and his skin feels as though it's peeling; he can barely hold his gun as he breaks into a wild run down the road.

"They what?!" he hears the Colonel ask into the radio then he stumbles over a hidden boulder or a hole in the road and the ground moves out from under him. He fires while he falls but the tendrils which snake around him don't care as they wrap him up.

o


	7. Chapter 7 betaed

_**Chapter seven**_

"Peterson, what happened to Armbruster… Peterson…?!" Sheppard yells into his radio and all eyes are on him.

McKay stares with wide blue eyes and asks, "What's going on?!" ready to run or panic, depending on what comes next.

Sheppard growls and changes the channel. "Ronon… do you copy… what is going on?!"

He hears gunfire over the hill now. Peterson's position is further down by the gate, so the source of the sounds must be Ronon and the other three marines stationed around the village, Sheppard concludes. Damn, this isn't good.

"The vines are coming alive. They got Corporal Juvase and Perkins…" Ronon pants into his radio, and when the big guy is panting the situation must be really, really messy.

"What's going on up there? Is that gunfire?!" Suni calls from down in the hole and Sheppard winces, raising his gun against the vines all around them.

They are everywhere, all over the trees and the rocks, over the hill and bushes. Only the clearing they are in is still free; if the vines really are the source of the attack then they are in the worst possible position for a proper defence.

"What? What is going on up there?" Carson has joined Suni now and looks up into the sun, one hand raised to shield his eyes from the dirt that comes down. Teyla – who had followed Carson down to help - joins them and looks up anxiously as well.

Lathia and Cadman raise their guns against the vines in sight, and Rodney steps behind Sheppard for cover, a hand lingering on his own gun, as the greenery starts to quiver and hiss. "What the hell is this?!"

"Probably what ate the villagers," Lathia suggests and Rodney glares at her. Trust the Athosians to state the obvious when needed.

"Ate the villagers?" He stumbles back to the rim of the hole and looks down, almost falling. "Just fantastic; as if Marilyn Manson groupies and the space Nazis weren't enough… Now we have the Little Shop of Horrors too!"

Ronon comes running out of the bushes to their right a moment later, Parson close behind him, then one of the green vines shudders and rises up so he stumbles and falls face first into the blue flowers, Parson going down after him. The surface of the drying mud cracks and flies up around the two men, covering them with dirt. Cadman fires and Sheppard sprints off to help his men, the covering fire of the others flying all around him while he slips and staggers.

Sheppard slips and slides across the flowers and mud, and barely manages to steady Ronon enough to get him up, struggling to keep on his legs himself. He wants to fire but the mud and the gun don't get along well. He tries to reach Parson, holding out his hand to help him up too, but can't manage to get him up again before the green tendrils snatch the marine around the ankles and pull him into the woods.

Sheppard snarls at the greenery and struggles forward, holding on to Parson with all his might, till Ronon chops off the vines that hold the marine back. They practically crawl back to the hole, Parson between them.

o

The last thing Parrish expects as he walks out of the corridor with the transport unit and heads to his laboratory, is a mass of green vines crawling all over the hallway floor and walls. He blinks and tilts his head in confusion as it sinks in that he has screwed up yet another time.

"Wow, what's that?" Katie Brown, another botanist who has exited the transport unit behind him asks, and comes to a halt beside the man. "One of your samples?"

"Eh…" Parrish steps back as the green vines quiver, seemingly at the sound of Katie's voice. "Seems so, but I never guessed they would grow that fast…"

Some of the green tendrils seem to quiver and spasm, moving slowly in their direction while drooling incredibly stinky stuff. "Really fast…"

"Oh, that's…" Brown hisses at the smell and pulls the other scientist back as the vines come closer and closer, then the first one spits its sap at them and the woman shrieks in pain when the yellow stuff hits her skin.

"Come on!" Parrish reacts quickly and pulls her back down the hall and into the transport unit again, palming the next best target on the destination panel.

o

"Doc... get up here!" Cadman calls down into the hole as soon as she sees the blood; Parson's legs look bad and the man screams at the top of his lungs all the way to the hole. He curls up and holds his face as they finally get him into the scant cover the boulders give. The vines snarl and seethe but don't move further than the edge of the blue field, touching the water and mud hesitatingly but not crossing it.

"The way to the gate is blocked," Ronon states, his blaster ready although it isn't of much use.

"Okay, okay…" Sheppard has Parson on the ground now and fumbles in his vest for a bandage. "Rodney, down there is a door. You said you have power on your scanners…"

"Barely, it wouldn't be enough to light a candle, but yes there is energy…" McKay explains, eyeing the vines.

"Would it be enough to open and close that door?" Sheppard persists and Rodney wants to go into a detailed rant about Ancient technology and not-quite-hydraulics which only need a spark of energy to work, which is in fact pretty brilliant if you work with limited resources, then he understands and blinks.

"You want us to go into that hole?!" he snaps and points at the source of all their trouble before the vines attacked. "That's just stupid!"

"Rodney." Sheppard presses the bandage hard onto Parson's leg while glaring at McKay, and the poor man under his hands screams even louder.

"It should be enough, yes… but we don't know what's behind it," Rodney argues.

The vines seethe and try to reach them even over the field and the water. Some venture out, clearing the flowery mud away, making the water splash and the mud fly towards them.

"We'll take that risk…"


	8. Chapter 8 betaed

_**Chapter eight**_

Katie Brown is crying by the time they exit the transport unit at their destination. It's a crowded hall close to the gate room and several people run to their aid the moment he helps her down onto the floor. The wound on her arm where the sap hit is red and swollen, turning into a spreading blister on the skin which looks about to burst. There are holes now where the stuff hit her clothes.

"Call a Med-team!" someone yells as Parrish stands up.

"What is going on here?" a military member asks, gun ready to point at someone but lacking a target as yet.

"What is going on here, Dr. Parrish?" Dr. Weir is there too, somewhere in the crowd and Parrish just stares at her for a moment. "Dr. Parrish?"

"The plants I brought from the planet… they grew all over my laboratory. And they spit acid…" He gestures at Brown on the floor, then it really sinks in.

"They did what?" Weir blinks at him.

"Oh no…" Parrish groans as he understands what ate the villagers, and his eyes go wide. "We have to contact the team! The same plants grew all over the village, they ate the villagers..!"

Weir doesn't understand half of it but follows the scientist as he dashes down the hall to the control room.

o

Beckett has linked himself up to the rope again and is ready to go up when he sees Rodney move over to the rim above him and Sheppard leans into view to say, "Make some space there Doc, we're coming down!"

Beckett is confused but steps back, Teyla as well. "What is going on up there?" he asks Rodney as soon as he touches ground.

"Oh nothing, people-eating plants, that's all..!" Rodney snaps and moves directly over to the door where Lorne lies strapped into the lifting construct. He pats the wall all over and makes a sound of joy as he finally finds the control panel, ripping the cover off with his bare hands.

Lathia is next to come down. "What did he mean about people-eating plants?" Beckett asks her.

"The vines seem to be the entity which killed all the people in the village," Lathia explains and steps away from the rope. Teyla blinks, not as serene as she usually seems; both women share good memories of this place, even if from many years back, and this was a death not one of its people had deserved. "We will evacuate into the room behind the door…"

"I knew it could not be the Wraith," Teyla says, then Sheppard appears again at the surface, hair even wilder than usual.

"We're sending Parson down now, he's wounded and bleeding," he calls and Carson nods, ready to take on the patient when he reaches the bottom.

Rodney is muttering to himself and poking at the wall panel, stepping around Lorne and over him while fumbling with the flashlight, till Lorne can't take it any more. The morphine is wonderful and dulls the pain but Rodney remains as irritating as always, even through the comfortable buzz of drugs.

"Doc!" He waves his free arm. "Doc give me the light, you've got a hand free then!"

Sheppard watches Cadman descend, and looks up again to find the first of the vines crawling forward through the remains of the muddy ground. Ronon fires, but the tendrils just move on, slowly but steadily worming their way over the muddy field.

"Rodney! How's it going?" John calls down and gets only muttered curses then a surprised, triumphant sound.

"I've got it open!" Rodney yells and bounces on the spot.

Sheppard moves to climb down next while Ronon steadily fires at the vines that close in, snarling and growling back at the vegetation in annoyance. He comes after Sheppard, just jumping most of the way, barely missing the other man.

o

Zelenka is there too by the time they are trying to reach the planet of the vines. He's scanning the city and locking down all laboratories around the botanical department, cursing as it becomes clear how much the thing has already spread. "This is impossible…"

"Radek?" Weir is unsure which of her people she should watch more closely, Chuck the technician who is trying to dial the planet the vines come from, or Zelenka, who is surveying the security feed of their city with a colourful string of curses on his lips. "How bad is it?"

"Oh, bad." He sighs, pointing at the screen. "The plant already spread from botany department to archaeology and cut off geology from nearest transport unit." He looks up at Parrish who stands to his right. "How could you just plant unknown alien vine before clearance?"

"I planted them to keep them alive_ for_ the clearance," Parrish answers and watches the vines on the screen with dismay. "They were totally harmless on the planet…"

"We could try it with fire," the security officer on duty suggests. Parrish hasn't seen him before but knows he is Lorne's new second. "I could have the equipment ready in a few minutes…"

"I would not suggest to do that," Zelenka sighs and pushes his glasses up further on his nose. "If scanners are correct that yellowish sap is very potent acid, some of the things it could eat up emit highly explosive fumes when dissolving. We could sink entire city…"

Parrish remembers how bombed out the village looked below all the plants, and the burned sheds and roofs. "They probably tried that on the planet too."

The gate awakens with a roar and the focus of attention shifts.

o


	9. Chapter 9

_**Chapter nine**_

The veins blow mud and dirt down over the rim of the hole, buzzing and snarling with hunger and thirst. A few of them wipe down into the hole like tentacles in a pirate movie that wrap around anything available. They not even care for the steady beat of fire drumming down on them.

"Rodney, now would be really, really good…" Sheppard snarls and changes the clip in Lorne's P-90.

"I am trying… I am trying!" Rodney snarls back. He has already changed the crystals in the panel again and again, but nothing lights up. The energy is on his scanner but the door doesn't move.

Lorne is back on his good foot, leaned on the dog with nearly all his weight. Lathia has Parson beside her on the ground while the others give cover.

The first vine rushes in and tries to lick up the blood Parson steadily leaks from his leg, crawling forward in the blink of an eye to wrap around the ankle of Lathia who holds the man up. Parson falls forward and she shrieks out as the man gets pulled away by his arms alongside her. Ronon moves to chop off the veins and get him back while Lorne holds to his female team mate with all power he has left in his good arm, Beckett wrapped around his torso to steady him and Suni around Beckett to hold him upright at all.

Parson screams with wide open eyes, begging his team mates for help, but looses the battle.

The next vine reaches for Ronon and he chops off vine after vine on his way back into the alcove, on and on as much as he can but they keep coming, filling the room outside.

Sheppard fires clip after clip and the parts of the vines fly through the room. Teyla and Cadman do the same, but it's of no use.

"RODNEY!"

"Yeah, yeah…" The Scientist curses and plucks in another crystal than the door groans heavily and slides finally shut in painful slow motion.

It goes dark.

For a few moments anything is silent, expect for the harsh breathing of Sheppard, Cadman and Ronon, Lathia's pained moans and Rodney's constant litany of "Wide open spaces, wide open spaces…"

Parson is down along with almost anyone else they have brought along. Along with the whole planet and everyone mourns his part of the disaster for seemingly endless long minutes.

"Okay…" Sheppard breathes slowly and the click of the safety of his p-90 can be heard, "That was…tight."

It needs a couple of moments more before the first flash light turns on and points around, doing a official headcount.

They have lost all of SGA-4 expect for Dr. Suni, who silently sobs in a dark corner.

Parson is dead too.

Lathia has lost the boot on her right foot and the acid is eating away on her lower leg, bleeding badly. Ronon has bruises and holds his arm from where the vine has grabbed for him and Rodney is on the brink to his usual claustrophobic panic attack.

Cadman has Lorne leaned against her, half his weight on her shoulder half on Teyla's, while Carson tends to the bleeding of the second Arthosian woman. So far so good. Sheppard collects himself for a long painful moment, swallows and moves the light from the Doctor to Rodney.

He stares ahead with wide, terrified blue eyes, reciting his mantra. "Rodney."

"Wide open spaces…." Rodney keeps muttering, scanner clutched to his chest. "wide open spaces…"

"Rodney, we need to get out of here…"

"Very bad idea Colonel, those acid spitting daisies are out for blood… not much chance to get through." Rodney snarls and glares at Sheppard as if the Colonel would be too stupid to count to three. Nobody needs light to know he does.

"I meant the other door Rodney…"

"Oh…" Rodney blinks. "Yeah… but I need light." He says and pushes through the crowd in the half dark to the other side of the room. Cadman shifts and moves Lorne around so the scientist has more space, swallowing the pain her own arm causes from back as she collided with Lorne. "Okay… that way…" Ronon moves as well and takes the flashlight of Teyla's gun to light Rodney's work.

"Does the door have energy at all?" Suni whimpers, and Rodney snorts. He doesn't even answer that one.

"Lorne, Cadman…" Sheppard continues his head count. Lorne's team shrinks by the minute, and he knows that feeling too well.

"We are still here, Sir…" Lorne mumbles in the dark. Sheppard fumbles in the dark and finally pats Lorne's good shoulder, moving on to find Carson in the dark again.

"How is it going Carson?"

"The bleeding slowed down, but the acid seems to be still active, I lost most of my gear outside…" he trails off.

"So we should get out of here fast…"

"Aye…"

o

"Colonel Sheppard, do you copy?!" Elizabeth tries the sixth time but only gets a mild crackle in the line.

Parrish has his eyes closed and counts to ten over and over again. His heart beats painfully fast and he feels more than just a bit sick about the whole ordeal; the smell of the dissolving flesh and the picture of the squishy bones are still fresh in his memory and he prays to any available god that he hasn't messed up as big as it looks.

"They probably took cover somewhere…" The unnamed military member guesses and Parrish opens his eyes. Elizabeth is tense and has her arms crossed over her rips and her lips pursed tensely. "We should send a MALP, perhaps we can see something…"

"When these vines are around the gate as well, than they will attack MALP once it's through." Zelenka adds. "And as I see it, Acid is strong enough to even attack ancient equivalent of metal, MALP won't stand a chance. And we can not send UAV, the woods around the gate don't permit enough space to move…"

"But we have to do something?!" The other man argues passionately. Parrish can see the man burst with the need to do something before his eyes travel to Weir once more.

The line stays dead and their eyes meet for a moment. Weir's posture is always calm only her eyes betray that mask sometimes and Parrish knows that she's fighting with the need to blame him alone, than she closes them and sighs.

"Alright…" She turns around and gives Chuck the sign to server the connection. "You will make contact all 15 minutes, call them, hopefully they really took cover somewhere and just can't answer right now…" , than she turns back. "We have to take care of the plants in the laboratories first."

Parrish nods.

o

The door groans and the crystals in the door flicker, short and white. A different design than those in Atlantis too, Rodney notices. He huffs at the fractious technology and pulls the crystal out again. He snaps his fingers for Suni to give him another one to replace the first and snatches it out of her hand with absolutely no patience for the trembling woman.

The plants rub and scratch on the other door, they can hear it. The room is small and dusty and he can smell the acid the plants have spit on the others, can smell the flesh being eaten and it makes him nauseous.

Lorne notices the shaking hands and just knows that the silence Rodney works in doesn't mean something good. "You'll do it doc…"

Rodney huffs.

"You'll do it…" Lorne repeats.

Rodney shoves another crystal in a bit harder than needed and sparks fly, he falls back into Ronon and watches, as all others do, how the panel flickers anew. On, out, on, out… and than, than it steadily stays on and he rushes forward, and gives the command.

The air that floods the tiny dark room is surprisingly fresh, artificial somehow but fresh enough to suck the acid smell out of their hiding spot. Sheppard and Ronon go first, exploring the dark room and as soon as Sheppard does two steps the lights go on with a satisfied ring.

"Wow…" Sheppard gasps and Rodney follows out into the light shielding his eyes from the sudden brightness. His eyes hurt but he's happy that the next room is a lot bigger than the last, and with a lot, he really means a lot.

It's like a long tunnel to their right as well as to their left, and light after light snaps on. It's stretching for what seems like miles in both directions, a lot bigger than Atlantis's lower levels, so much is sure.

"Okay…" Sheppard drawls slowly and turns the flashlight on the gun off. "Rodney?"

"What?"

Sheppard glares and Rodney blinks. "Oh, yeah right…" He raises the scanner and waits, but the scanner doesn't show anything else than their eyes do, halls stretching on for miles, splitting and meeting again to both sides with small rooms right and left like a spider's web with a lot of tiny knots.

"It's the same for miles. The halls must go through the entire area…" He is shaking his head in awe.

"Why couldn't we see that from above?" Cadman asks, leaning over Rodney's shoulder, Lorne hobbling along beside her. "There was nothing on the scanner on the surface…"

"The area is shielded." He adjusts something. "Hm, that's interesting…"

"Rodney…" Sheppard isn't as patiently as normally, the aspect of people eating vines thin out his nerves quite a lot and he don't even wants to start on all the letters he has to write home now.

"There is an energy signal," Rodney quirks his lips, the prospect of something good that could come out of this seems just too promising. "It looks pretty much like a ZPM…" He looks up and points down the hall to his right. "It comes from a central room where all halls and rooms meet…"

Sheppard follows the direction Rodney points out with his eyes. "How far away is that?"

"Two or three clicks…" Rodney says and adjusts something on his scanner.

Lorne frowns and calculates the distances and positions in his head, slow with the morphine but it still works out. "That's pretty close to the Forest at the gate…."

"Directly under it." Rodney corrects. "Perhaps we'll find an exit away from the vines through which we can reach the gate, or we could, at least, try to deactivate the shield…"

"So the radios work again…" Sheppard completes and nods; he has an entourage of wounded people, one more than the other to walk for miles in an unknown ancient base and doesn't like the idea at all. He looks eyes with his second for a long moment and Lorne seems to be driven by the same thoughts.

Beckett sits on the ground beside Lathia and can't do much more than press down on the wound, Suni stands to his side and looks around.

"Okay…" He closes his eyes for a moment and breathes in deep. "Ronon, you carry Lathia, Carson, you and Dr. Suni help Major Lorne. Lt. Cadman and Teyla take the six." He looks up and gestures for Rodney, adjusting his gun while the others organise. "Rodney and me go first."

o


	10. Chapter 10

_**Chapter ten**_

They have the red and green vines on the screen, crawling over the walls and floors of Atlantis. The knots pulse and the tentacles quiver, but they don't spread further.

They can't spread further because there is a door that usually leads to the geology department, and it's looked as securely as it goes – the plants spit at it anyway.

This doesn't help the members of the geology department who are on the other side of that door or the people that could escape hardly and with several acidic burns. Nor does it look as if the doors will hold out all eternity with the thick covering of yellow sap it gained by now.

"Any suggestions how we can get rid of this plants?" Elizabeth blames Parrish, and that's okay with Parrish because he knows he is to be blamed, so he wonders not a bit that the first question is directed at him.

"It was cold and rainy on that planet, clearly below the Atlantis room temperature." Parrish suggests. "We could lower the temperature in the area, stop their growth."

"And you really think this will help?"

"I think so." Parrish says.

"Good…"Elizabeth asks Radek who sits at the same spot as before. "Can we do that?"

"Yes, we can lower temperature within a few minutes." Radek says and already starts giving the commands to the age old systems of their ancient city.

"I am going to set up a team that can evacuate the geology department…" The Security officer says and Elizabeth nods to that as well. He runs off, out of the control room and down the stairs, which is a lot like Lorne or Sheppard would react, Parrish notices.

Zelenka sighs and leans back in his chair. "I hope this works…"

o

It's more futuristic than normally, or at least seems so. The design of the hall is familiar but more clinic and white than Atlantis usually is, less homely than Atlantis could be on her worst days. Well, that only makes sense, Lorne thinks, because there are no rooms designed as living area around, not a single beach or alcove to sit in - and Atlantis is great in providing such tiny corners of comfort.

The halls go on forever, doors to the right and to the left, and it's only Rodney's scanner that tells them when they have to turn to the right to reach the central room.

"Okay…" Rodney says and stops the entire group in front of a bigger door. "Behind that one is the main hall leading to the control room…" He's calling it control room now because he hopes it _IS_ the control room. "It has energy, so you should be able to open it with your gene…" Rodney gestures for Sheppard.

"You've got the gene too…" Sheppard drawls but moves anyway.

There is not time to argue much, as comfortable as it is for them. It's not for the others; Lathia has stopped whimpering a while back and judging by the looks of Carson that's all but a good sign.

He palms the control and thinks open very hard, there's nothing at first and he tries harder.

"Colonel…"

"I am trying Rodney." He thinks harder and frowns at the door. "I think we need more than one person to open it…"

"More than one?" Cadman echoes. "There is just one panel…" She's securing the hall behind the others and can't look on Rodney's scanner but he pulls it tighter to his chest anyway.

"Very observant, really." Rodney snaps at her and glares at the door. "Carson…"

"Me?" Beckett almost whines, really he can be brave, and is it when he has to rescue his patients in the middle of a battlefield, but opening unknown doors…

"Yes, you…" Rodney gestures for him and Carson helps Suni to lean the Major against the door before moving forward, laying his hand on Sheppard's. "Now Concentrate…"

"Not enough yet." Sheppard sighs.

"Not enough yet?" Rodney grumbles. "Really, what kind of stupid door is that," he pushes the others away and tries to pry open the panel for closer observation of the door mechanics.

"I am not sure you should really do that Rodney…" Sheppard points out after his scientist fumbles around for several minutes without managing to open the damn panel. "Lorne has the gene too and you have the artificial one… we'll try again together."

"Fine, than we'll try together." Rodney steps back and grumbles.

John lays his hand on the console first, than Carson follows and they drag Lorne, who bites down on the pain of his leg with all the willpower he has, over too, palming the panel together.

The door sighs deeply in their minds, welcoming them after a half eternity of loneliness than it slides open and reveals a long hall glowing in a bluish light.

The mile long hall is broader than those they walked till now and dominated by cluster after cluster of blue tubes on the walls ; some are dead, others merely flicker or glow brightly.

Sheppard and his gun go first, Rodney and his scanner follow.

"Wow…" Rodney blinks and adjusts his scanner. "That's… just…"

"Rodney?" Lorne and Carson come next directly behind Rodney and this time it's Lorne who asks what's going on before Sheppard has a chance.

"Stasis pods…" Rodney mutters and walks over to one of the walls. "Every single one of these tubes is a small stasis pod. The amount of energy… it's just gigantic."

"Stasis pod for what?" Carson asks, and watches Rodney. Ronon and the others fill in behind them and slowly move past.

"Biological material. Cells, seeds and such stuff."

o

The plan works and the plants still, so the, for Parrish, nameless Major who organises the event and his men gear up in hazmat suits which will hopefully keep off the acid for long enough to pry open the doors and get the people out.

Parrish can see them on the security feed, walking through the dense forest of vines from the nearest transport unit to the thick door behind which the geology department is caught. It has something off the first landing on the moon, on a green flesh dissolving moon that only holds still because they have cooled the surroundings down to a temperature close to the freezing point.

"How is it going Major?" Weir asks from beside Parrish, and the Major on screen waves lamely at the camera that's half way hid by the foliage.

"The hazmat suits seem to work, the acid has thickened and seems to be slower in reaction too." He continues his slow walk through the foliage. His men behind him carry boxes with additional suits for the members of the geology. "We are half way at the door…"

"If people are out, we can lower temperature below freezing point for a few hours…" Zelenka adds from his position at the console. "The plants should be dead after that."

"Good, very good." Elizabeth allows herself a relieved breath.

"Ma'am it's time for another contact…" Chuck calls out and she gives her okay to the dialling of the gate with a short stiff nod. Parrish sighs and concentrates back on the screen, he can't help there, he can't do a thing.

The gate comes alive a couple of moments later and the process of calling for the missing teams starts all over again, hopefully with more success.

o

The stasis tubes contain biological components, genetic material as far as the scanner can show – which isn't much because it's not much more than a slightly advanced version of the hand held sensors they usually have. Rodney hasn't configured it for something like this to begin with so he has that and his eyes.

Lorne stops counting the clusters at the walls after a few minutes, stops trying to guess what the dark dots and bubbles inside the bluish tubes could be, anything looks like a strange scene out of a sci-fi movie. Even has something out off Matrix - though he never liked that movie much, besides, the light makes his head ache even more than it already does.

"You alright Major?"

Suni asks and he shakes her concern off with a small smile that's more of a grimace than anything else.

"I am okay…" He lies and looks at the rest of his team, wounded in one way or the other. Especially Lathia status makes him uneasy; she's still and pale and blood is soaking the bandage to the point at which it's dribbling down to the floor. "How's Lathia?"

"Not good, the acid still goes on and I can't do much…" Carson explains from Lorne's other side and drags the Major on.

"Do not worry Major Lorne, Lathia is strong." Teyla consoles him and Lorne just winces in the dull pain of his next step.

"Okay, next door…" Rodney announces as soon as the large portal comes into view. The opening of this one isn't less complicated but opens with a less obscene sigh. There is another door, probably for security or lock down purposes that's smaller, but opens the same way, than they stand in a central room approximately as big as the 'lantean gate room, without a gate though.

It's more Atlantis style now, with a couple of couches or beds in the corner, furniture, screens on which the ancient coding runs and dried up room plants – that really nobody dares to come to close to after their battle with the vines.

Rodney makes a beeline for the central console in the middle of the room. It's raised over the rest of the room and he nearly stumbles over the couple of stairs because he tries to look on the screens hanging around and on the scanner at once. He curses out loud – reminding anyone that he, merely weeks ago, was shot into his gluteus maximus and Cadman giggles.

Ronon marches over to one of the couch things without much care for anything around, Carson and Suni lead Lorne into the same direction to set the Major down on one of the pieces of furniture. He's grateful to finally get off his foot and half way falls into the couch pillows.

Most of the others sit down to look after their scrapes and bruises once the door closes with a satisfied sigh and Sheppard does a last headcount, shares a worried look with his second who's watching how Carson fusses of Lathia, than follows his scientist. "Rodney…"

"Busy…" The scientist snaps, hands and eyes flying over several spots of the console at the same time.

"I see that…" Sheppard is tired too and rubs through his hair. "Have you found a way to reach the gate?"

"I have to find the schematics of this whole basis first - because the scanner really doesn't show me much more than the simple structures – have to find out where the shielding and energy signature comes from – it's possible that there is another room to control that from.." He looks up to find Sheppard glare at him and rolls his eyes. "I am working on it, okay?"

"Good…"

o


	11. Chapter 11

_**Chapter eleven**_

The door to the laboratory opens slowly after the acid already gnawed away on several layers of ancient metal and they find a group of scientists huddled together behind a few desks. They shriek out as the tentacles formerly scratching on their door fall lifeless to the laboratory floor and reveal the men in their hazmat suits.

"Calm down, we are here to get you out…" One of the men says and the rest of the rescue detail fills in, bringing boxes with additional suits with them. It works so far, so they don't entirely care for the tentacles of green and red as they walk back and forth to secure the parameter.

The twitching that begins at the other end of the corridor goes unnoticed, even by Weir and Parrish who watch the whole thing over the security feed while listening to the useless calls for their lost teams on the planet the plants came from.

"Anything yet?" Weir asks and moves over to chuck who shakes his head.

"No Ma'am, nothing…" Chuck points out and Weir tenses even more. Usually Sheppard's team found a way back and she isn't ready to give up yet on them, they may not be able to send people through right now to search for them – due to the vine's possible activity – couldn't even send a UAV to look what's going on but she was sure they were still there.

"Try it again in 15 minutes…" She turns around in time to witness how one of the plant's tentacles wraps around the leg of a Marine, gave a hard tug and dragged the man off his feet.

o

Sheppard walked over to the rest of his team and the others, observing how Carson changes the bandage on the Athosian's leg for the third time, they probably hadn't much of the bandages left - they usually belonged to the standard gear in their vests but not in the amount to supply this kind of wound on a longer period of time.

"How're they doing Carson...?" He asks for what may be the tenth time since they are trapped in this ordeal. Teyla, who sits on the ground beside her tribe member gives him a worried look and Carson doesn't look happy either.

He's bandaging the wound tightly to stop it from leaking, and to keep the smell down too.

"Well, Major Lorne is okay so far, I could give him the basic treatments before the plants attacked. Lathia, not so good…" He stood up and walked around the couch, "The vines have a very intense acid that causes almost immediate necrosis and dissolving of the tissue at contact. It's practically digesting the living flesh," Carson whispered with a grimace on his face. "The lass is out cold from the awful pain…"

"Do you think the plants have done the same with the villagers?"

"Aye, the acid may have dissolved them and the vines absorbed the nutrients… something must have interrupted them though…" Carson frowned wiping his hands on his pants.

Sheppard frowns, the bones didn't look as if anyone or anything has stopped the vines. "Why?"

"All minerals were sucked out of the bones, but an Acid as damn strong as this one would have been able to dissolve the protein of the bones as well… given the exposure was long enough."

"So something made the plants stop before they were finished with the bones…" Sheppard completes the Doctor and Carson nods. "You don't know what, do you?"

"No, I have no clue…" Beckett shrugs, "But I know that we have to get out of here fast, I can't do much for her or the Major…"

"Rodney's working on it…" Sheppard says and a cry of triumph echoes across the room as if on cue. Everyone turns to the source of the sounds, and Sheppard is not the only one raising his gun at the person standing right in front of Rodney.

"Rodney? What's going on?" Seems to be the most common question lately, Lorne thinks, and adjusts his spot on the couch thing to see what actually is going on.

Rodney is no longer alone on his spot at the consoles, there is another person now. The man seems to be around his late 50s and is clothed in the ancient style, patiently observing the people standing before him, especially Rodney.

"Lower the guns for goodness sake, it's just a hologram…" Mckay snaps at Sheppard and the others, who hesitatingly lower their guns an inch or two. "He's the interface of the base computer…"

"Than ask him for a way out of the base…" Cadman quips and gestures with her raised gun, well, Rodney never liked working with guns pointed at him – or anywhere in his close proximity – so the glare is more than poisonous.

"Oh as if that would be so easy…"

"The base is in lock down modus three, leaving is not recommended." The hologram answers and Cadman raises an eyebrow at Rodney in enjoyment, leave it to the two to argue in the worst scenarios.

Sheppard steps forward. "What do you mean with Lock down modus three?" The hologram focuses on him and titles his head in confusion.

"Lock down modus three is active to ensure the protection of this unit from contamination through external influence." The hologram shows a base schematic on one of the screens around and turns over to a scanner view of the planetary system, than shrivels back to base schematics. It only lasts a moment than the screen begins to report what looks like ancient numbers and names.

"What do you mean by external influence?" Sheppard asks next and the hologram raises his head.

"The Wraith." The hologram says.

"This are the pods we saw outside…" Rodney declares and points at a series of numbers, seemingly recalling the positions they refer to in the base schematics. "And there are a lot more of them everywhere in the rooms and halls around."

o


	12. Chapter 12

_**Chapter twelve**_

The Marine lands hard on his back before anyone can react. He screams and his gun flies through the air as he gets pulled under by an ocean of red and green. The vines wrap around him as soon as he touches the ground, tightly holding to him, even as the others dive in to battle the foliage.

The Marine keeps fighting as do the others, even the unknown Major who tries to get the abused door to close again, but it doesn't work completely.

Most of the geologists haven't even managed to get into their hazmat suits completely and stand there as easy targets as the plants dash into the room, snatching one after the other.

The Major tries to hold to one of the scientists as the vines grab for them, but they don't have much of a chance, so he falls as well. Ironically enough the hazmat suits indeed protect them to a certain degree, just enough so they live longer under the attack of the vines and the Acid.

Weir can't watch what's going on and closes her eyes in face of the screams - than there is gun fire rattling and her eyes fly back to the screen in time with a following explosion.

"What the…?!"

The whole hall is a single cloud of flames for a second, every last inch of room burning, than it clears out for the smoke.

"The fumes must have caught on fire…" Zelenka grimaces.

"Get the water going!" Weir orders and the Czech does so, Parrish helping along. They have returned to simple water for the fire extinguishing after the whole Peobes- body-possession ordeal last year, what in hindsight, was exactly the right thing to do.

The water starts to fall in and drowns out the smoke. Some of the people on screen are still fighting against the vines and suddenly the green stops fighting back, stops spitting and falls lifelessly to the ground.

o

"What kind of samples are in these stasis pods?" Rodney asks next and the hologram changes the feed on the screen to a pure list of numbers that come in sequence, running over the screen in reference to one pod at a time. Sheppard blinks, he don't knows half of the ancient symbols and numbers running over the screens, but by the face Rodney makes the scientist does neither

"Information…" The hologram explains. "Saved by Deucalios and his sons to be stored and preserved for future generations."

"Deucalios?" Suni is now up and over most of the shock, too. "Sounds a lot like the Deucalion the Greeks talked about."

"Deucalios, member of the high council, and his three sons were assigned to preserve the seed of life and save the information for future generations." The hologram explains with something like pride. "I am formed after his picture."

"This is sort of an ark," Rodney declares after several moments gesturing at the screen.

"An ark?" Ronon asks, by now standing beside Sheppard.

"Part of a story from the bible in which a guy named Noah heard from his god that he had to get a female and a male of every species on his ark…" Cadman explains from her position further back.

"His ship…" Sheppard clarifies. "He had to do so before his god would flood the world in order to preserve the animals and repopulate earth afterwards. Noah and his family were the only human beings on board…"

"Do you think this Noah was an ancient?" Teyla, who still sits beside her friend asks as next one. Lorne thinks about Ori and their use of their own kind of bible, and that this wouldn't be the first story of false gods in the history of men.

"Possible…" He says.

"Oh, not really. " Rodney frowns at the screen. "I mean it's possible the story was influenced somehow by a ancient named Deucalios, which is – I admit - pretty close to Deucalion from the greek mythology - who has a few similarities to the Ark story. But this is clearly not the ark in the bible sense, we don't have a male and female of every species but a couple of millions of stasis pods full off their genetics," Rodney explains and shakes his head at the readings, pressing a few ancient buttons. "I thought so…"

"You thought what?"

"This crazy flower out there…" Rodney holds up his finger and points into the air above him, wriggling his hand for emphasis. ",crawled out of one of this pots as a entire section of tunnels collapsed. It doesn't belong here but found the perfect surroundings to grow and kill the villagers..."

"But isn't that impossible? You just said the pods would merely contain their genetics?" Cadman asks.

"Well seemingly they thought it would be easier to keep the seed of the plants in the pods instead of the DNA samples they used for most of the other creatures…" Rodney snaps, and Lorne decides he doesn't need to understand anything the ancients did to know they really were not that wise and all-knowing like they had seemingly loved to pretend.

o

"Would somebody tell me what is going on?" Weir asks and frowns at the screen. The water falls on the plants and they hold still, even release their victims - or what's left of them.

"They don't like water?" Chuck says and frowns as well, he has jumped up too as the explosion occurred.

"What kind of plant hates water…" Elizabeth wonders, more than just confused.

The remaining scientists can just walk thought the green, with almost no harm from the acid thanks to the water and their hazmat suits – it's too late for the bigger part of the rescue detail though.

"Of course!" Parrish calls out. "Of course! That's only logical!" He beams brightly at the people around him, they just stare back at him in confusion. "The Water…"

They still stare.

"It rained as we went on that planet, it wasn't the temperature it was the rain. It's only logical; the rain thins out the acid to the point where an effective hunt or defence is impossible for the plant, so they hold still when it rains and hope nobody eats them." He explains grinning brightly.

"And we shall wait till it rains on the planet before sending a search team, yes?" the Czech scientist asks. "We don't even know when it rains without sending a MALP through."

"It doesn't need to rain, it just needs to be wet. And we need more of the hazmat suits." The typical Parrish enthusiasm is back, hunting the helpless feeling away.

"What do you want to do? Throw water balloons?" Chuck chuckles.

"Not quite…" Parrish grins.

o

"That's all really great, but how do we come out of here now?" Lorne asks and shifts his leg painfully, Lathia is moaning in Pain even while being out cold and that just isn't right. "We have to leave…"

"The base is in lock down modus three, leaving is not recommended." The hologram repeats its former statement firmly.

"Yeah, yeah!" Rodney makes a dismissive hand gesture at the hologram. "Okay, we aren't so far away from the gate right now. I deactivate the shielding than we should be able to leave even with the lock down modus," he types something and the screen changes back to the schematics. "The shielding is off, and there we have the door…" It shows a tunnel that leads away from the control room and ends just 100 or 200 meters from the clearing with the gate in between some of the stone pillars standing around - a distance which is still awfully long if the plants were taken into account.

"We can't run that far with Lathia and Lorne, not with the vines…" Ronon is the one to voice his protest, and as strange as that sounds, the former runner is right with that.

Sheppard bits his lip hard for a moment, that's correct, the stupid plants are damn fast and damn strong, not to mention the acid and the way the foliage has crawled all over anything out there even before the crap came alive to start eating his men.

"Okay, any suggestions?" He looks at Rodney.

"What? Me again?" Rodney blinks. "Why is it always me anyone turns to?" Sheppard glares. "Okay, fine…" He sighs and returns to his screens muttering.

"Sir, I still got some grenades with me, we could get us a hall closer to the gate and blast a hole in the roof, than try and run…" Cadman suggests and searches in her vest for the mentioned explosives.

"Yeah and they can eat us in the time we need to get our asses out of the hole…" Rodney snaps from his spot on the console, shooting a fast glare at the blond woman. "You can blow us all up later."

"Rodney…" Sheppard sighs.

"Here is Atlantis, SGA-1 do you copy!" I crackled over the radio a second later.

o


End file.
